With quarterly earnings season coming up, get ready for an onslaught of news headlines highlighting blockbuster numbers and disappointments. However, this quarterly cadence of news can be damaging to an investor's long-term mindset. In this Motley Fool Live segment from "Beat & Raise" recorded Oct. 5, Fool.com contributors Jason Hall and Nicholas Rossolillo discuss one really important fact to bear in mind.
Jason Hall: Nick, how about you? Then since we're up against the hour, I really want you to close the show with your first rule.
Nicholas Rossolillo: For quarterly time limit? Yeah, two to five minutes. Except for the fourth-quarter. I love fourth-quarter earnings because you get usually your first peek into the new year from management, unless it's a fantastic management team, they signal to you earlier than that what they think is going to happen in the next year. Rule number 1, should I just read it?
Hall: I think so, because I think at the end of the day, we just spent an hour talking about quarterly earnings and it's also something that we also talked about, is saying, hey, this is not life-changing and very rarely is it thesis changing, it's just this incremental knowledge. But we spend an hour talking about it. [laughs] Nick, I think this first rule is really valuable because it puts it in context.
Rossolillo: Actually, I think it goes along with a comment ProShopGuy had made earlier about how important are quarterly earnings or is it just a way for the media companies to keep their employees busy.
Rule number 1 that I talk to clients about all the time: The news is not managing your money. Businesses that we invest in are managing our capital. Go get your news from them. If you can or if you're in doubt about something, go to the source. The news is not managing your money. They're not in business because they are helpful and helping us make good decisions, sound decisions. They're in business because they keep us hooked and sell ads.
Hall: I love it and the final part of it too, focus on the info they're putting out. If you don't trust management, do you even have a basis to do business with them anyway.
